Packers’ Grant should get chance to roll from the start

By Anthony Bialy  |   Monday, June 09, 2008  |  Comments( 6 )

Green Bay Packers
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The impressive thing about Green Bay Packer Ryan Grant’s quasi-rookie season wasn’t his yardage accumulation as a running back but his efficiency: He got to 956 yards while only needing 188 attempts to do so. After a year as a New York Giants practice squad body and another spent on injured reserve after cutting his arm in a freak nightclub accident, he’s established himself as a legitimate NFL threat after only a handful of appearances.

Now that he finally got his opportunity to play, he needs more opportunities to run; that shouldn’t be a problem assuming his coaches realize that, contract squabbles aside, Grant has earned a tighter lock on the starting slot than even the man who will presumably hand off to him.

What’s most striking about the Notre Dame product is not merely that he emerged from obscurity but also that he averaged more than halfway to a first down every time he ran. His clip of 5.1 yards per carry put him in the upper echelon of his position, which is even more wondrous when one considers that his first career carry didn’t take place until Sept. 23.

Additionally remarkable is how relatively little he ran the ball. While that rate put him in seventh place among rushers who made enough attempts to qualify, those 188 attempts were only 25th-most in the league. Although the fact that 182 of those came in the 10 post-bye games serves as evidence that the team started using him to his potential, he’s still not consistently been shifted out of second gear: Grant only carried over 20 times in four of those contests. He can and should be given more touches.

Grant should be able to hold up as option one. At 6-foot-1 and 224 pounds, he possesses enough size to ensure coaches won’t have to worry about him falling apart because of collisions. He was only handed the ball six times in those first six contests before the team’s break, as his emergence didn’t take place until Week 8 in Denver when he racked up 104 yards on 22 chances; no longer undiscovered on his own roster, knowing that he should be starting beginning with 2008’s first offensive play ought to serve as a thrilling prospect for Packers fans.

The important factor is that coaches wouldn’t have to take away attempts from somewhat auspicious youngsters Brandon Jackson, who got 75 tries in the 11 games he played during his first season, or DeShawn Wynn, who got up to 50 carries in seven games before landing on injured reserve for a shoulder woe.

Instead, they could actually increase the per-game quantity rate for all three backs. The Packers only rushed the ball 24.2 times per game last season, fifth-fewest in the league, and more attempts will bring necessary balance to an evolving offense. This isn’t a zero-sum game: Coordinator Joe Philbin doesn’t need to split the exact number of carries the team collectively had in 2007 among his ground options.

Um, they could just run the ball more, a sensible tactic considering the promising backs themselves as well as the obviously overwhelmingly biggest story of this team’s offseason. Leaning on Grant and his stable mates will assuage the inevitably rocky transition to a new quarterback.

The biggest problem now isn’t his play but rather his compensation for play, as Grant attends but sits out voluntary workouts while leaving his exclusive-rights offer unsigned. That said, another player’s showing might expedite the process: Watching Jackson improve should entice Grant to ink his deal, especially in light of the fact that another proficient campaign will put him in a better position for bigger future earnings.

The signing would definitely help the passer. Not forcing assumed new guy Aaron Rodgers to win games with his arm, at least not straight away, is a clearly wise approach, especially when there are gifted rushers with little history of wear to take on some of the burden. In particular, Grant has grown the tallest of the options and should have the chance to continue to bloom.

Getting him around 25 or maybe 30 carries every game will benefit this team, offense, quarterback, and the yearslong overnight success story himself.
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